Twitter and reddit are the modern day Colosseum, and no one wants to watch gladiators hug

Former CEO of reddit Yishan Wong has posted a comment at reddit, defending Chairman Pao and insisting that we have her, and reddit all wrong. Wong denies that reddit was ever intended to be a ‘bastion of free speech’ on the internet, a refrain picked up by incoming CEO Steve Huffman (spez), one of the original creators of reddit.

Neither Alexis nor I created reddit to be a bastion of free speech, but rather as a place where open and honest discussion can happen: These are very complicated issues, and we are putting a lot of thought into it. It’s something we’ve been thinking about for quite some time. We haven’t had the tools to enforce policy, but now we’re building those tools and reevaluating our policy.

I am much more familiar with Twitter than I am with reddit, and in my opinion, neither of them understand their platforms and how people use them. Jack Dorsey at Twitter and Steve Huffman at reddit created their tools to prompt communication, and lots of people do use them for that sole purpose, but plenty of others use it to watch the wars break out – some retard shitposting and getting an epic smackdown is exactly what makes reddit and Twitter fun. Twitchy.com has built their entire site by collecting the best facepalms, smackdowns, comebacks and bitchslaps Twitter has to offer. Twitchy gets Twitter, while Twitter seems oblivious. Reddit’s built-in downvoting and upvoting performs the same function. Open a reddit thread and you will instantly see who is winning the war of public opinion.

On both reddit and Twitter, no one has to view content they don’t wish to see. Twitter users do not have to see their mentions – what other people are saying about them, if they don’t wish to. No one is forced to browse subreddits they find distasteful or offensive. But on both platforms, people go looking for trouble, because trouble is part of what makes the sites fun and engaging. Don’t want to battle? Don’t browse subreddits and shitpost in the comments, don’t tweet shit using hashtags you don’t like. It’s very simple. Both sites are arenas where ideas compete. Tweeting a hashtag is equivalent to throwing down the gauntlet – it’s how you spoil for a fight. And get one. No one has to fight, but if you dish shit out, you better plan on taking it right back.

What’s actually happening on both sites is that crybabies will shitpost in hashtags or subreddit comments and then run away crying when the fight they deliberately picked starts. Check the #WomenAgainstFeminism hashtag, for example. Random users will tweet ‘abuse’, calling these women stupid, illiterate, dumb, attention-whores, ignorant, compare them to slaves or dogs, and then add the hashtag. When users in that hashtag respond to the shitposter, it’s ‘harassment’ and ‘abuse’. And Twitter backs the suckholes who start fights and then run away crying when they get the shit beat out of them, metaphorically, of course.

reddit is now heading down the same path, and contemplating banning subreddits that other users of reddit object to. The actual users of the subreddits are perfectly happy, and no user is forced to browse any subreddit they don’t like. Don’t think /fatpeoplehate is funny? Don’t go there. You’ll note that /fatpeoplehate was banned, while /skinnypeoplehate is still up and running. reddit is right to ban content that is illegal (revenge porn, etc.), but in banning content that is perfectly legal but objectionable to some people, they are profoundly misunderstanding the function and value of their site, and completely disrespecting their core users.

They can, and will revolt.

Both reddit and Twitter are giving in to feminists and SJWs who are, in actual fact, destroying their core business. Both will completely collapse if they allow the hugbox to exist. When no one ever gets offended by anything ever, the site is boring as shit and it dies. I have zero sympathy for them. Welcome to Capitalism 2.0: you don’t tell the customers what they need, you give them what they want. Or you die. C’est la guerre.

It just so happens that I have former CEO Dick Costolo’s personal email address at home, Jack Dorsey’s address at Twitter, and the address of his primary admin. I sent them a little note explaining how Twitter works, which you can read in its entirety at The Ralph Retort. I copied Ralph on the note, and he rather liked it! Will it have any effect? Dunno. I’d say I threw down a gauntlet.